Appeal to find executed SAS hero’s family

22/01/2019 @ 09:42

An appeal has been made to find local relatives of an SAS hero who was stripped naked and executed after being captured with seven colleagues during a daring WW2 raid.

Edwin Weaver’s parents, also called Edwin and Annie, are believed to have moved to Forden from Shropshire at some point after their son was born in St John's, near Shrewsbury.

Edwin junior was killed in October 1944 after being captured by the Germans during a deep-penetration raid into Occupied France named Operation Loyton.

Since being parachuted into enemy territory, they had fought in uniform against military targets and so should have been accorded the protection of the Geneva Convention when taken as prisoners of war.

But Adolf Hitler had decided otherwise. Under his Kommandobefehl – Commando Order – captured special forces troops were to be executed following the extraction of useful intelligence.

Edwin and his brave SAS brothers-in-arms were driven to a wooded location before being stripped one-by-one, shot in the back of the head and pushed into a ready-dug grave.

The elite soldiers have been immortalised in a stunning set of books called ‘The SAS and LRDG Roll of Honour 1941-47’ which superbly recounts Edwin's life and incredible service that saw him overcome malaria no less than three times during service.

In fact, Volume Three is named ‘We Were Good Men’, the final words that Edwin spoke to his executor (as recounted at a later trial) after he had watched his seven captured colleagues murdered first before he was the final one.

The author is now hoping to track down members of the eight families to mark 75 years since their horrific murders by attending a ceremony to unveil a permanent memorial later this year.

“Anything that might result in Edwin Weaver’s next of kin getting in touch would be most appreciated,” the author told us, simply going by the name of by Ex-Lance-Corporal X.

“The memorial is currently being planned and there are no firm dates for opening. However, it is hoped that this will be later in the year in time for the 75th anniversary of the men’s deaths. It will be a small private ceremony.”

Edwin is buried at the Durnbach War Cemetery, Germany, and those responsible for his death were tried by a British Military Court in May 1946 and received prison sentences of between two to 10 years, terms that were strongly criticised by the pathologist attached to the War Crimes Investigation Unit at the time.

His gravestone (pictured) states that Edwin was 38 when he died, and he was the husband of a May Weaver. He was the older brother of Florence and Stanley Weaver.